DB 7

Read attachment & answer these 2 questions–  

APA & 250 words min & 1-2 references 

 Topic-  What Can We Do to Help Others? 

• Do you feel that we cut ourselves off and create “gated” communities—that is, set apart from the problems of other communities? 

• Do we rely too much on government and the police to resolve social problems? Are these problems too big for individuals and communities to sort out for themselves?

WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP OTHERS?

The Rich Man and Lazarus LUKE 16:19–31 ————————— • —————————— Introduction

It is easy for us to live well and build a cocoon of faith and wealth, leaving those outside of faith and outside of wealth to fend for themselves. In this parable, Jesus warns us against such an attitude, lest we become like the rich man and ignore the plight of the less fortunate.

The Parable

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” The Ref lection We have often stopped along the path that these parables have taken us to consider what “a rich man” is in reality. In the time of Jesus the rich were a small minority indeed, and the poor were all around. Today’s economy is quite different, since in the West the vast majority of us are comparatively rich—even if we don’t always feel that way! Despite widespread poverty in the less developed countries, there are many who are rich, and there is great potential for increased wealth. Much of Europe, including the leading capitalist economy of Britain, once had poverty like that of today’s lesser developed economies. Today, because economic wealth can be achieved by good economic management, these poor nations themselves have g reater possibilities for their tomor row. Yet it seems so often that state planning or political will are supposed to triumph while commerce is denied its role as the driver of economic success. This is a little like asking your medical doctor to unclog your sink. Perhaps he can do it, but he doesn’t have professional skills to offer in this area. Likewise, good economics and commercial management are the way to create economic wealth. Political will can help by not hindering commerce and by not putting red tape and bureaucracy in the way of people trying to be entrepreneurial. Political will in these countries can also help by stamping out corruption in their dealings. When we see poverty in our communities or elsewhere in the world, we cannot help but contrast this with our own wealth. However, we can also look up the social scale and feel our own lack of wealth compared to others. Perhaps we can sometimes feel that little tinge of envy. If we do not appreciate how wealthy we are in reality, then we feel we ought to have more. To a greater or lesser extent, there is a little envy in all of us. Wealth and poverty touches our feelings in different ways. If we help the poor, then we can feel good about ourselves and feel empowered in some way, perhaps unaware of the sense that the poor have in fact become an object to us. This is not to sound cynical about all our actions; it is to point out that there is an element of these unwanted feelings within us, whether we like it or not. There was no such struggle in the heart of the rich man in our parable, since he was completely disinterested in the poor man. (I will note here that some Bible interpreters have questioned if this passage truly is a parable. Such issues aren’t germane to this book, but suffice it to say that I certainly take this to be a parable.) Oddly, the poor man, Lazarus, is the only character given a name in any of the parables in the New Testament. Lazarus may recall the servant of Abraham in Genesis. The rich man here is sometimes called Dives, which is Latin for “rich man.” The two men in the parable are vividly contrasted. The rich man lives only for himself, lavishing luxury on himself—as evidenced by the wearing of purple, the color associated with great wealth. The poor man is excluded, outside of the gates, and is plagued by sores and hungry for whatever scraps may fall from the rich man’s table. The religious or moral status of the two men is not provided to us; we are called to ask the question, to use our judgment as to what difference may be understood. In verses 22–26, we learn to what end the two men come. There is then a twist to the parable, for the rich man is told that his brothers have Moses and the Prophets to appeal to if they want to avoid the rich man’s plight. The problem for the rich man is not caused by his wealth but by his ignorance of the teachings of Scripture. He distanced himself from God and thought his riches adequate to satiate his needs in the world. The mention of Abraham underlines the point because Abraham himself was rich yet is one of the great fathers of the faith, for he subordinated all else in his service to God. In hell the rich man learns his fate and finds his condemnation. His response is finally to look to his neighbor and warn his brothers, but this comes too late to save him. The audience to which this parable is directed is once again the Pharisees, reaching back to verses 14–15. Jesus is telling them a story about what awaits those wedded to this life and that the good fortunes of the rich in this life will be reversed in the next, with a warning to the rich against being covetous. We too are being given a message about what can greet us in the world beyond this one. This is a solemn parable that warns us of the reversal of fortunes that may await us. It also draws the conclusion that if the Law and the Prophets cannot change the hearts of those wedded to this world, then a miracle such as the resurrection will not succeed either. We are to root our faith in the resurrection if we are to avoid the condemnation that greeted the rich man. However, we also have to look at the full implication of this parable as one that says something about our responsibility to others. Had the problem of wealth been just about the attitude of the rich man, then there was no need to include Lazarus in the story. All Jesus would have had to say was that the rich man lived lavishly and selfishly and then paid for it in hell. Why include Lazarus? Jesus is warning us that we have to view ourselves, as part of the broader community, in relation to others. We cannot selfishly imagine that we alone stand before God, devoid of how we have responded to the needs of others. The real contrast is between choosing to serve God with our money and using money idolatrously to secure our final condemnation in the Lord’s courts. The rich man is condemned because he loved wealth and declined to help the poor man at his gate, not even with crumbs from his table. To underline the distance between the rich man and Lazarus, we are told even the dogs took sympathy on the poor man by licking his sores. The rich man has eschewed his responsibilities toward the poor man who has come seeking his help. He is so self-absorbed that he probably doesn’t even consider the plight of the wretched man at his gate. This raises questions about how we “gate” ourselves in communities today, keeping ourselves distanced from the woes of many in places close to us as well as around the world. By changing the channel to something more cheerful, the TV remote allows us to regulate how much misery we wish to witness. When we see a beggar in the street, it is easy to throw him a few cents to appease our conscience. We too can often behave like the rich man, ignoring the plight of the one who seeks help at our “gate.” In many cases, concern for those outside the gates is seen as a job for the government or the police. The Christian response needs to be one of discipleship, offering our faith, prayers, and help to those without faith and in need of prayer and help. In reaching out to the people around us and those in faraway places, we need to understand the totality of the power within us and our church community. This is not just about money and assisting the poor. It is also about prayer, education, and sustaining a vibrant congregation. It is about building our own faith community to be powerful in prayer and ministry. It is about calling others and welcoming newcomers into our community so that we increase our strength as God’s people. To see this only in terms of dollars and cents is to miss the

unique mission of the church, which is distinct from all the secular agencies that exist to help the community. The church needs to stand as an exemplar in the community and also as a negotiator between various community actors, in order to help people help themselves.

In the frustration of seeing the plight of the poor, it is easy to think there is a political response that can be bound to a theological concern. There is then a risk in taking a particular political view of the economic woes that afflict people at home and abroad. Once the churches or Christian groups politicize this role and advocate policy, then they run the risk of alienating themselves from the community and becoming indistinguishable from any other provider of help. The role of negotiator will then be diminished and the status of exemplar weakened.

Both the church and individual Christians have roles to play. As an individual Christian, you should participate in the policy debates about how to best change your community. You will no doubt find yourself on the opposite side of the aisle from other Christians on many issues. This is healthy because you are dealing with the fallible nature of humanity and the difficulty of weighing all the different possibilities. At the end of a debate about policy options, you and your opponent should be able to kneel in prayer, together facing God in humility and in need of guidance. The danger is when churches or Christian groups become advocates of policy, alienating the opposition by following the narrow interests of political groups and passing fashion. Christ’s gospel is timeless and counter to culture, but public policy is within history and tied to the limited vision of human culture. The question is where you want to place your confidence. Jesus invites us to consider what we place our confidence in and how we act in community with others. We are to assess whether we feel so secure in our faith, so secure in our personal wealth, that we have made ourselves quietly independent of the world and its troubles. Our faith and our wealth is to be used in community with others. In terms of wealth, this does not mean that we give all our money away and become poor ourselves. Using our wealth can mean many things, for we are rich in many things. Because we live well, we have a greater capacity to help; and there is a variety of ways we can help this missionary work of the church. We ought to examine ourselves and discern whether we are really doing all we can to help the church and the community toward achieving better things. We may have skills that can be put to good use for the church or in pro bono work. We may hold a position in our work where we can make a difference in people’s lives by encouraging the decision makers to do things for the good. We might have daily interaction with people in the stores or on the street where we might be able to do something to make their lot more sustainable. Of course, we need to sustain ourselves. We can’t be of much use to someone else if we cannot help ourselves. The key is to recognize when we are able to help and to know what we have within our power to change. The old saying that charity begins at home does have some validity, for it means that we have to help from a position of strength—in our faith and in our material being. Ultimately, what makes anyone’s lot sustainable is the gift of God’s grace. Our self-examination is not posed here as a condemnation but as a challenge to see whether we maximize who and what we are to the greater glory of God. It is for each of us, not a focus group or a government policy, to answer this question. Nor is this an occasion for finger-wagging. The fate that awaits us at the end times, should we ignore such self-examination and submission to his will, is made painfully clear in this parable. ————————— • ——————————

Other Biblical Texts to Study Luke 16:20 Luke 16:21 Luke 16:22 Luke 16:23 Luke 16:24 Acts 3:2 Matthew 15:21–28 Luke 19:9–10 Matthew 11:23–24 Matthew 25:41–46; Luke 3:8

Things to Think About

• Do you think economic problems can best be solved by good economics and commercial management or by government planning?

• What do you see as the best balance between totally free enterprise and government intervention? • In what ways can you practically help those less fortunate in faith or wealth?

• If you work for a business, does it support many community projects? Could your company do more? If so, who do you need to talk to about this?

• Do you feel that we cut ourselves off and create “gated” communities—that is, set apart from the problems of other communities?

• Do we rely too much on government and the police to resolve social problems? Are these problems too big for individuals and communities to sort out for themselves?

• What more can be done in your church and community to reach out to help others?

• Do you agree that “charity begins at home,” meaning that we need to be strong first ourselves before we can help others? Is this idea too simplistic? If so, what alternative would you suggest?